People v. Crawford

• Decision Date: 07 November 1983
• Docket Number: No. 3,Docket No. 65437,3
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert Reid CRAWFORD, Defendant-Appellant. Calendar
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

Page 630

339 N.W.2d 630

417 Mich. 607

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert Reid CRAWFORD, Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 65437.

Calendar No. 3.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Argued March 8, 1983.

Decided Nov. 7, 1983.

Brian E. Thiede, Chief Appellate Pros. Atty., Jackson, for plaintiff-appellee.

P.E. Bennett, Asst. State Appellate Defender, Lansing, for defendant-appellant.

LEVIN, Justice.

Robert Reid Crawford was charged with forgery, ¹ uttering and publishing, ² and with being a fourth-felony offender. ³ Pursuant to a plea bargain, the uttering and publishing charge was dismissed, the supplemental information was amended to charge only one prior felony, and Crawford pled nolo contendere ⁴ to the charge of forgery and guilty of being a second offender.

Crawford appealed, claiming that the plea bargain was illusory ⁵ because the particular conviction charged in the amended supplemental information was subject to attack on the ground that it was obtained pursuant to a plea of guilty which was defective in that he was not advised of two of the constitutional rights identified in People v. Jaworski, 387 Mich. 21, 194 N.W.2d 868 (1972). ⁶

The Court of Appeals affirmed, 98 Mich.App. 309, 296 N.W.2d 244, stating "that only those prior guilty-plea convictions where the defendant was not represented by counsel should be excised from one's prior conviction record for purposes of the habitual offender statute". ⁷ The Court of Appeals continued that "assuming arguendo that defendant's contention is correct, we cannot say that prejudicial error has occurred in the sentence of the trial court." ⁸ We affirm, but do so on a different analysis.

A

By pleading guilty to the supplemental information charging forgery as a second offense, Crawford enlarged the judge's sentencing authority. The maximum punishment for forgery is 14 years, ⁹ which could have been increased to 21 years as a result of Crawford's plea of guilty to the amended supplemental information. ¹⁰ Crawford was actually sentenced to serve a term of 6 to 14 years, a sentence which could have been imposed upon conviction of forgery as a first offense had he not plead guilty to the amended supplemental information charging it as a second offense. Accordingly, Crawford did not suffer any prejudice in respect to the sentence imposed as a result of the inclusion in the amended supplemental information of the prior conviction which he now asserts is defective under Jaworski.

B

Crawford asserts that he was nevertheless prejudiced because if he had not been originally charged in a supplemental information as an habitual offender, fourth offense, which, upon conviction, subjects the offender to a sentence of life or a lesser term ¹¹, he might not or would not have plead guilty or might have been able to work out a more advantageous plea bargain than the one which he was able to negotiate. ¹²

Crawford did not, before pleading nolo contendere and guilty, move to quash the supplemental information on the ground that the June 13, 1969, conviction was defective. Crawford's claim that a prior conviction is defective is based on facts which would not appear in a printout of his prior conviction record. Under the decisions of this Court, a prosecutor has a limited time in which to file a supplemental information. He cannot be expected to order the trial court record in every prior case in which a defendant was convicted and scrutinize it for error before filing a supplemental information. ¹³

No claim is made that the prosecutor included in the supplemental information a conviction which, under established principles, he could not properly include. Nor is it claimed that the prosecutor was on notice that a prior conviction was deficient or subject to challenge.

Crawford not having moved to set aside the prior conviction of which he now complains or to quash the supplemental information, and it not appearing that the prosecutor was on notice that the prior conviction may have been deficient or subject to challenge, Crawford cannot properly complain that he might not or would not have pled guilty or might have worked out a better plea bargain if the facts had been developed and his legal position had been sustained.

C

A conviction defective under Jaworski can be challenged by a timely motion by the defendant to quash the supplemental information or to strike from the supplemental information the defective conviction. To be timely, such a motion must be made before a defendant's plea of guilty or nolo contendere is accepted. ¹⁴

Affirmed.

WILLIAMS, C.J., and KAVANAGH and CAVANAGH, JJ., concur.

BOYLE, J., not participating.

BRICKLEY, Justice (concurring).

I concur in the result of the majority opinion, but cannot concur in the assertion that a conviction, although defective under Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), and People v. Jaworski, 387 Mich. 21, 194 N.W.2d 868 (1972), but never directly attacked, may be challenged by a timely motion during an habitual offender proceeding. I would hold that only those guilty pleas taken in violation of Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963) are subject to collateral attack in later habitual offender proceedings.

Denial of the right to counsel mandated by Gideon is a deprivation of rights altogether different from the issues before us here. The denial of the right to counsel impugns the integrity of the conviction, raising doubts about the guilt of the accused. It is for that reason, and that reason only, that the use of a counselless conviction is forbidden in collateral proceedings notwithstanding that the defendant did not raise the issue on direct review. The requirement of a record waiver of the right to remain silent, to cross-examine witnesses against him, and to be tried by a jury which is required by Boykin v. Jaworski, while undoubtedly important, pales beside the right to counsel.

The United States Supreme Court has never forbidden the use of Boykin-violative convictions in state recidivist proceedings. A majority of this Court does so today because Boykin rights are of constitutional stature. Such reasoning begs the question. The right to be free from unreasonable searches, the right to effective assistance of counsel, the right to a properly instructed jury, and countless other rights are also of a constitutional nature. Are we now to assume that all violations of constitutional rights not raised during direct review of a conviction may now be reviewed during habitual offender proceedings? I agree with Justice Stevens, writing for a unanimous Supreme Court in United States v. Timmreck, 441 U.S. 780, 784, 99 S.Ct. 2085, 2087, 60 L.Ed.2d 634 (1979) (failure to advise defendant of a special parole term as required by F R Crim P 11 cannot be raised collaterally) when he states:

"For the concern with finality served by the limitation on collateral attack has special force with respect to convictions based on guilty pleas.

" 'Every inroad on the concept of finality undermines confidence in the integrity of our procedures; and, by increasing the volume of judicial work, inevitably delays and impairs the orderly administration of justice.' "

The adoption by the majority of this rule does nothing to further the interests of finality. Instead of providing incentive for raising claims on direct review where proper relief can be afforded and the error corrected, the majority allows a claim dormant for ten years to be resurrected when the defendant's tactical considerations so require. Allowing a previously settled conviction to be litigated again in a setting not normally involving the parties to the original proceeding will, in my judgment, create disorder in the administration of justice.

RYAN, J., concurs.

1 M.C.L. Sec. 750.248; M.S.A. Sec. 28.445.

2 M.C.L. Sec. 750.249; M.S.A. Sec. 28.446.

3 M.C.L. Sec. 769.12; M.S.A. Sec. 28.1084.

4 Crawford asserted at the plea-taking proceeding that by reason of intoxication he had no independent recollection of having committed the offense.

5 Crawford argues that charging him as a fourth offender "was a coercive misrepresentation of the prosecutor's charging authority" and that his plea was made "pursuant to an illusory bargain".

The three prior felony convictions alleged in the supplemental information occurred on August 14, 1964, in Berrien County, of uttering and publishing, on March 7, 1969, in Ingham County, of uttering and publishing, and on June 13, 1969, in Ingham County of attempted uttering and publishing. The instant charge was for forgery and uttering and publishing in Jackson County.

The first two prior felony convictions alleged in the supplemental information were eliminated as a result of the plea bargain. The prosecutor relied on the June 13, 1969, attempted uttering and publishing conviction as Crawford's one prior felony conviction in the amended supplemental information.

At the June 13, 1969, plea proceeding, Crawford was advised of his right to a jury trial, but was not advised of his rights to confront his accusers and not to be compelled to incriminate himself, two of the Boykin-Jaworski rights.

Boykin was decided on June 2, 1969, 11 days before Crawford pled guilty on June 13, 1969.

In People v. McMillan, 389 Mich. 114, 204 N.W.2d 682 (1973), this Court stated that, with a limited exception there noted, the Boykin-Jaworski requirements do not apply to pleas of guilty taken before June 2, 1969.

The two prior convictions which were dropped as part of the plea bargain, the convictions on August 14, 1964, and March 7, 1969, were obtained prior to the decision in Boykin. The March 7, 1969, conviction followed a jury trial.

Crawford asserts, alternatively, that his second and third prior convictions, on March 7, 1969, and June 13, 1969, were of crimes which occurred only one day apart--on March 29 and March 30, 1968. He contends that for two convictions to count as two...